And in the End (We Return to Zero)
by I.W.P-chan
Summary: This is truly an unjust game… (Warning: Major Character Death)


Summary: This is truly an unjust game…

 _Note: Inspired by a fanart (I'd include a link here but we all know how FFN is with links *rolls eyes* so I'll have it up on my profile instead, or you could hit the tumblr/AO3 version for it too. Edit: so I tried putting up a link on my profile but it didn't work. so you'll only find it on the AO3/tumblr versions.)_ _. Enabled by my fellow enablers (whom I need to come suffer with me, I can't be the only one suffering here.)_

 **Warnings: Major Character Death (Major Character Already Dead At The Start Of The Fic), Sadness, Feels, I Have Done It And Actually Wrote A Fic With Major Character Death, Enabled By The ShuAke Hell Discord Server, Inspired By Art, Come Join Me In The Suffering, Ambiguous Ending.**

 **Disclaimer:** Don't own P5.

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 _For a goal they dedicated their existence for, humans could break over and over again, and would pull themselves back together each and every time, mending themselves with hope, expectations, desires, and ignoring the sharp edges of the aftermath._

 _But then, the thing that would break them beyond their ability to recover was reaching their destination, their goal, and finding themselves in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to their name, choked up on possibilities and regrets and what-ifs._

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Akechi Goro had fought both tooth and nail to reach his goal, had lied and manipulated and stained his hands a permanent red.

(He'd killed the only person who ever truly mattered to him with his own two hands. He'd torn away his only chance at a happiness he didn't deserve but was offered to him anyway.)

And here he was, finally at his destination.

Yet as he stared at Shido's form, slumped over in his chair, staring blankly at his desk, as the reports of his crimes were spread everywhere, as his fall neared, Goro didn't see him.

Goro's vision of his father was superimposed with the image of the price he had to pay to arrive at this point.

Gray eyes devoid of life stared back at him from a face pale with death, framed by dark hair matted with blood.

Goro was snapped out of his trance with the sound of Shido shifting in his chair to look at Goro with horrified eyes.

Suddenly, it didn't matter to Goro that he'd pushed himself through life for this moment, what mattered to him was to leave, get out, go- wherever. It didn't matter.

It didn't matter.

Turning on his heels, he left Shido's office with quick footsteps.

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Shido organized a press conference to confess, and Goro made sure to watch it.

He'd done it, he drove his thrice-cursed father to this point, with no cognition changes or heart stealing, and he deserved to see the fruits of his labor.

As the conference passed, Goro listened intently to the reactions of the people who stood around him.

That was when Goro's world crumbled from underneath him.

The public didn't care because they needed a prime minister and what did it matter that Shido committed atrocities?

Goro sucked in a sharp breath, almost choking and blinking back tears.

Why… _why…_

Why, after everything, after Shido's true colors being exposed, after the truth of his horrendous acts coming out, he wasn't going to lose his position?!

He wasn't going to pay for his crimes?!

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Goro had no idea how he arrived at Shido's Palace his last memory being of hearing the public's indifferent reaction to Shido's confession.

The Palace was crumbling at a slow pace, but it didn't matter to him.

His feet carried him through the ship until he reached the engine room and stood next to a spot on the floor.

It made no difference to him that no trace remained; in his mind's eye, he could still see the image of Kurusu's dead body pinned to the floor with Goro's serrated sword, blood pooling underneath him, and hands dropping to the floor from where they were trying to grasp Goro.

Goro dropped to his knees, one hand reaching to cover his mouth and muffle the keening wail that escaped him while the other hovered over the floor.

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 _Deep inside of him, a hand grasped the fragile thread holding him together. The fingers trembled and the thread tore, and with it, Akechi Goro was no more._

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End

AU where Akechi kills Akira during the confrontation in Shido's Palace, manages to succeed in his plans of revenge but the public doesn't matter.

Does Akechi die in the end? *shrugs* who knows…


End file.
